David Lebovitz is a Paris-based American chef and food blogger. He is also the author of four cookbooks, including The Perfect Scoop (Ten Speed), which features recipes for frozen desserts. His next book will be published in May of 2009 by Broadway Books. You can also catch up with David on Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.

Sweet or salty?

Both, and at the same time.

What’s the cooking sound you most love?

The sound of someone else doing the dishes.

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Last night while I was scrolling through my recorded cooking shows looking for dinner ideas, I came across a recent episode of Mark Bittman’s Best Recipes in the World. In that episode, Mario Batali took Bittman to watch an Italian home cook named Paola di Mauro make ricotta agnolotti with a really simple tomato sauce — made only with fresh tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper and olive oil.

By the time Paola was plating her pasta, I was seriously craving a pasta dish made with those same ingredients. I loved the idea of limiting the tomato sauce to tomatoes and basil, and could see how the sweetness of the ricotta would play off of that. But I didn’t want to take the time to make fresh pasta and form it into dumplings. So, I decided to make a deconstructed version.

Here’s what I did:

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Cookshrink is a weekly column that looks at the psychological aspects of how and what we cook.

Much has been said about the evils of perfectionism in the home kitchen, a self-imposed affliction that can cause crippling anxiety for the cook as well as those sitting down to dinner.

Bree Van de Kamp from Desperate Housewives is the perfect pop culture embodiment of the perfectionist home cook. Her perfectionism in the kitchen isn’t born out of a desire to please others, but to be admired and reassured of her worth; her need to bake the best pie in the neighborhood is a bid for social status.

But what about those who simply will not settle for less than a perfectly roasted chicken, a perfectly puffed soufflé? Are they neurotic or do they just have high standards? Are you the kind of cook who does trial runs of a dish before serving it to anyone else? Or do you think of each meal as a culinary experiment, willing to share your failures as well as your successes?

Are you a perfectionist in the kitchen? Do you live with one? Is perfectionism in the kitchen a virtue or a vice?

Last month, Jeff Jarvis wondered “what a restaurant run on Googlethink might look like.” In Sunday’s WaPo, our pal Jane Black wrote about a restaurant-in-the-making that might qualify: Elements, a raw food restaurant concept that has been developed, designed and and marketed by 386 community members.

“Most businesses are started because you have a great idea, and you take it out to the public to see if they like it,” says Linda Welch, 49, the Washington businesswoman who launched and is funding the Elements project. “This is the opposite. We’re finding out what people want and doing it.”

Will be very interesting to see if and how this works as an operating restaurant. Anybody know of anything else like this out there?

Get out your mandoline, because you’re going to want to make these Garlic Truffle Fries. The recipe comes from this week’s featured author, Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen. Browse more of Jaden’s recipes and be sure to read Jaden’s answers to the inaugural Cookthink Questionnaire.

I had taken tarragon for granted until I met Hubert. Sure, I had grown up on Béarnaise sauce; tarragon vinegar and tarragon-roasted chicken showed up on the menu in our family kitchen, where Julia Child had been our ambassador to the land of French cuisine. But I never really tasted tarragon until a warm spring night in Los Angeles, when Hubert whipped up a plate of tarragon deviled eggs. (more…)

Pound cakes get their name from being made with equal weights of the main ingredients — flour, butter, sugar and eggs. They can, of course, be beaten by hand and were for centuries. However, it is a great deal of work and an electric mixer isn’t cheating. It is sane.

To get the best results for pound cake, it is very important that the butter and the eggs be at room temperature. Be sure to whip the butter long enough — until it changes to a paler, whiter color. Equally important, beat each egg thoroughly into the batter before adding the next. The batter will go through a slick stage when each egg is first added. As the batter is beaten, it will work its way back to the initial fluffy stage. Then you know you are ready to continue with the next step.

The subtle orange flavor of this pound cake allows it to be paired nicely with some fresh fruit — ripe blackberries are a good choice and in the markets now. Add a fruit sorbet if you have the time.

Recipe: Orange Pound Cake (Barbara Kafka Dessert Anthology)
Recipe: Extra Smooth And Fluffy Strawberry Sorbet (Barbara Kafka Dessert Anthology)
Reference: Why is it called a pound cake? (Cookthink)

(This is the eleventh installment of the Barbara Kafka Dessert Anthology.)

Kristin’s post about what makes something delicate got me thinking about one of my favorite ways to cook fish. To preserve its moisture and often subtle flavor, I like to wrap fish up in a papillote, an enclosed packet of parchment paper.

Halibut was fresh at the market, and I had some baby squash and zucchini, a sweet onion, amaranth greens and basil I had picked up at the Dupont Circle Freshfarm market on Sunday.

First, I tore off a long sheet of parchment paper (roughly 15 inches by 15 inches), put the fish in the center, and seasoned it with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. I thinly sliced a few baby squash and zucchini and a quarter of a sweet onion, then layered those over and around the fish.

I tore off a few leaves each of the amaranth and basil, and scattered those over the squash. I drizzled a little of the best olive oil I had over everything, sprinkled over a little more salt and pepper, and closed the parchment packet tightly. I put the packet on a small baking sheet, and slid it into a preheated 400F oven.

After about 20 minutes the bag had inflated from the steam. When I sat down and opened the packet I remembered why I love to cook with parchment: the trapped flavors and moisture hit me all at once, giving me a taste of the dish before I even took a bite. Easy to clean up, too.

We spend a lot of time thinking about how our mood affects our cravings. Every Monday, we share some of what goes on inside Cookthink as we’re analyzing recipes for the Cookthink database. With tarragon the subject of this week’s Root Source, today we’re looking at what makes something “delicate.”

When it comes to the realm of the edible, “delicate” can refer to an ingredient’s constitution or aroma — or the overall feeling of a dish.

Claire thinks of “delicate” food as having “a light touch on the tongue, that disappears almost instantly.” Even with its distinctive flavor, tarragon is exactly this kind of delicate — easily bruised and torn, quick to wilt, featherweight in your mouth. So are these Watercress And Cucumber Tea Sandwiches, which have a delicate constitution, making them a perfect teatime snack.

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At Steamy Kitchen, Jaden Hair practices modern Asian cooking that’s fast, fresh and simple enough for tonight’s dinner. A member of our Cookthinktank, Jaden is a food columnist and cooking instructor who does frequent live cooking segments on her local ABC News morning show. Her first book, “Steamy Kitchen’s Modern Asian,” will be published in 2009 by Periplus/Tuttle.

We’ve been fans of Steamy Kitchen for a long time, so we’re happy to feature Jaden in the inaugural Cookthink Questionnaire. Look for it every Monday and Thursday.

Sweet or salty?

Salty.

Which ingredient(s) do you use most?

Grated fresh ginger.

What’s the cooking sound you most love?

The ssssssttttzzzzaaaa of garlic hitting hot oil in a wok.

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